Replacement for DACA badly needed

by William Pech

It was June of 2012 when the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was announced. A few days before the announcement, there were rumors that something major in regards to immigration reform and the DREAMers, as we have been known to be called, was going to happen very soon. What soon followed was a ray of hope. I cried that day in disbelief that I was finally going to stop living in fear and have a chance to make something of myself.

Looking back, the winter of 2010 was particularly difficult as the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) failed to pass, yet again, this time in the Senate being just five votes short. I already understood the negative impact that this would bring to my life as it ensured that my future in this country would remain uncertain for an indefinite period of time. The feelings of fear, anxiety and loss of hope that came were too much to bear at times.

I was enrolled at Salt Lake Community College when the rumors broke, floating along with no direction or motivation to take my education seriously. My mentality was that I wasn’t going to be able to use a degree because of my undocumented status, so why bother? It was a sad place to be as my dreams of wanting a career were in the path of most resistance, and I felt it would be nearly impossible to achieve them. That would mean that my parents’ sacrifice would have been for nothing, and, when you have familial pressure to achieve, it begins to take an additional emotional toll. I was in the process of figuring out what other alternatives I could take instead of higher education that would at least allow me to survive and stay in the United States, as this is the only country I have known since the age of six.

President Obama’s announcement in the Rose Garden was monumental. After many failed attempts by congress to pass the DREAM Act, years of organizing and protesting by immigrant youth, we finally had a viable option – the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program created by the Obama administration after congress repeatedly failed to pass immigration reform and protect DREAMers. For those of us affected, America is all we’ve known, and DACA provided a sense of belonging and legitimacy in the country we love and call home.

Even if it was a temporary fix, it was something great at least for that period of time for me. DACA gave us a two-year employment authorization as well as protection from deportation. It gave us the mobility we needed to earn higher wages to help at home and pay our way through college. We no longer had to live in fear that if we were pulled over by a police officer we could be referred to deportation proceedings.

To be clear, DACA is not a pathway to permanent residency or citizenship but a Band-Aid solution after years of uncertainty and hard work.

I was fortunate enough to have saved up a little bit of money to pay the $465 fee and submit my initial application for DACA as soon as we were allowed to. I was in the process of moving to Chicago with my then-partner (who was also a DREAMer), as he was accepted into a master’s/Ph.D. program at Northwestern University. I was employed at a bank during my time there, and when it was time to come back to Salt Lake City, I obtained my insurance producer license – something I was not able to do prior to DACA.

This time around, I was serious about completing my degree. I knew I could complete my undergraduate studies as I was earning more money to pay for tuition, which ultimately would culminate in a career. Undocumented students, even with DACA, do not qualify for any state or federal assistance to pay for higher education. We rely on private scholarships and our own labor to pay for our education.

I met with Alonso Reyna-Rivarola, who was an academic advisor at the Center for Ethnic Student Affairs (CESA) at the University of Utah, to educate myself about what my options were to pay for tuition as an undocumented, first-generation student. Alonso influenced my decision to transfer to the U. I left our meeting with the necessary knowledge about navigating the institution to move forward in completing my goals.

The 2016 election had profound impacts in the immigrant communities. We were uncertain, yet again, what would happen to us and what the future of DACA would be after then-presidential candidate Donald Trump vowed to dismantle the program and leave us in shambles. With President Trump’s recent decision, we are put in a terrible position as everything we have built for ourselves over the last five years since the introduction is in jeopardy.

For me, it feels as if I am being dragged back to square one. I am in my senior year of my undergraduate studies, and the thought of not being able to use my degree after all these years of sacrifices and hard work is truly damaging.

So many of us have a lot to lose if there is no replacement for DACA. We are students, homeowners, small-business owners and, most importantly, Americans in every way except in the piece of paper we do not hold. My hope is that people start realizing the complexity of this issue as we share our stories. The immigration system is deeply flawed and the general populous fails to understand what kinds of hurdles we need to surpass to get ahead.